[pbs911]

Disclaimer: I am not your attorney and I am not offering any legal advise. If you want legal advise you need to see an attorney.

Ok, here is what I remember from school. . .

What ever your bring into the marriage in terms of material possessions is separate property. It becomes community property if there is a transmutation. For example, if you own a home and use your marriage income to make improvements on that home the dollar amount of the improvements is not proportionally community property (the marital property value increases / decreases in accordance with proerty value). To keep it individual you would have to use only premarital property (such as rent from the property) to make improvments.

Any wages earned during the marriage are community property. If you put any of that money into your separate property then it proportionally becomes community property.

A transmutation of separate property to community property can take place with as simple a statement as "everything that is mine is yours." It does not work the other way around from community property to separate property.

Unless your house is fully paid for, any mortgage payment (or property tax payment for that matter) made from wages earnings during the marriage will tranmutate that $$ amount of the house to community property. To show what share is owned by each you would be required to trace back the exact $ contribution.

Keep everything separate and well documented, including bank accounts, tax filing, stocks, interest, etc. However, if you mix comminity property with separate property you have probelms tracing it bach and there is a good argument that you are treating separate property as comunity property and a transmutation has taken place.

Once you get marriage, a portion of your retirement plan begins to transmute into community property. No way around it. The longer the marriage the more your retirement plan becomes community property. (This is true even if the marriage ends before your retire.)

If you are well off and don't intend for your spouse to contribute anything to the marriage, and you will be the sole provided, get a prenp to that extent.

Ca also has a rebutal presumption that marital property is split evenly at 10 years. That's why you see people, such as Tom Cruise, getting divorced after 9.5 years. Well, that and Penelopy Cruise. Think of Eddie Murphy's joke about the african bride he brought from the jungle to Los Angles who after living in luxery decided she wanted a divorce and "half Eddie, I want half!"

In other words, don't get married if you have a doubt. Life is too short to get married for the sake of being married.